Poker Training

How to Pack for Playing the WSOP + VDSE

Now that I’ve sold out my package, I’m super excited for the WSOP this year! I’m playing all the $1k + $1500 NLHE tournaments, plus many of the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza. Altogether, I have 25 tournaments scheduled between 5/28 – 7/4, so I’m setting out for a real grind!

Smart packing is something that can make a grinder’s (or a Grindette’s ;) ) life a lot easier.

Grinding Packing List:

• A huge bottle of water: Inevitably the cocktail service will have moments when you’re super thirsty and it seems to be taking forever to get a waitress to your table.

• Snacks: Unless you’re really obsessed with beef jerky, you may want to bring what you like to eat on the run from home. I try to keep my snacks relatively healthy to avoid a sugar crash, and enable me to play my best.

• A lot of singles: Having a stack of ones is handy for tipping, and avoiding the annoyance of having to make change later.

• Chapstick/Lip balm: The climate in Vegas is super dry, and most people have to moisturize a lot here.

• Toiletries, change of clothes: In case I play until super late and crash with one of my friends on the strip (I live in Summerlin). Ty friends! :)

• Glasses, wipes for glasses, preservative-free eye drops: I wear contacts, but sometimes my eyes have had enough, and I have to change into glasses. Also helps if one of your contacts falls out—as mine did once during a WPT prelim!

• Hand Sanitizer + lotion: As necessary as hand sanitizer is during the WSOP, it can be rough on hands, so I make sure to have lotion.

• iPad, Phone, MP3 player, headphones, + all chargers: I don’t use my tablet while playing, but it’s handy to have in case I bust and want to take a reading break for a bit before jumping into the cash tables. Listening to music with comfortable headphones helps me focus. Chargers are extremely important to carry, because my battery always dies at some point.

• A physical copy of your schedule: In case you forgot those chargers we already discussed.

• Lucky Mementos: While I’m not superstitious, I think having little uplifting things around can help your mental game. For me, I’ll be keeping with me a very sweet note my Mom wrote me to wish me good luck. Also, I like having pictures of my friends and family on my phone, to scroll through.

Comments

Katie dear, maybe if you paid more attention to your cards and your opposing players (instead of your toys, iPhone, food, notes, good luck charms, etc.), you just might fare a little better in the tournaments. Just sayin...

obviously you've never been on a serious tournament grind before because it's a very long, difficult time on your brain/body and being prepared & comfortable at all times is key to great performance. katie's packing list is a great way to ensure she never loses focus. also, maybe YOU should focus more on the part where she said she doesn't play with her "toys" (errr, communication devices) at the table and direct your obnoxiousness somewhere else.

So you're playing all the 1k and 1.5k donkfests with thousands of people...why?? If you are good and people are staking you, play some 5k or 10k events with alot less people so you actually have a decent chance of cashing/winning. Better fields, but I'd much rather play a 10k tournament with 200 good players than a 1k event with 3000 people (most of them not good).

So you're playing all the 1k and 1.5k donkfests with thousands of people...why?? If you are good and people are staking you, play some 5k or 10k events with alot less people so you actually have a decent chance of cashing/winning. Better fields, but I'd much rather play a 10k tournament with 200 good players than a 1k event with 3000 people (most of them not good).

This is a good point...if you could exchange 1 smaller buyin for a big one. I would say that she will have a much higher chance of cashing in 7 1K events and 2 1.5K events than trading those 9 tournaments for one shot at a 10K...

Ahhhhh, for the good 'ol days when the boys just sat down at the table with a cigar and their favorite beverage and just played poker for 24 straight hours without the need to send out endless tweets to let their buddies know how big their chip stacks were.

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